Article for Sunday July 23, 2023
Isaiah 44:8 8Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”
It is hard to conceive but there always has been one God. For God, there was no beginning and there is no end. God is and always will be. It is then that all things are created by God and God created them in His will and for His liking.
Science tries to make sense of everything and tries to humanize everything. Every time science thinks it has reasoned what it thinks it sees, it consistently finds out it is never looking at the whole picture. The reason science and all humans cannot see the whole picture is that the whole picture is too big and too much out of our ability to see. This does keep our scientists busy and hopefully they will someday realize there are some things beyond our human analysis.
There is only one God and there will never be another. I thank God for His existence, and for being the God He is. We have a God who is slow to anger, forgives us from our sins, and gave us a reminder of that forgiveness which is His Son, our Lord, and our savior Jesus Christ. We have a God who loves us to life.
Romans 8:18–19 18For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
We suffer a lot through our lives and some more than others. We suffer, at times pain, soreness, and even times of physical injury. We suffer sadness, hurtful feelings, and at times we suffer loss. We suffer sickness, diseases, and at a time death. But all of our suffering is a gift to teach us how to live, what we should do, and what we should not do.
That we refuse to learn or act upon what we have learned is on us. Though we try to blame God or we try to use our refusal to say there is no God. The truth remains that our suffering really is our own fault, our own most grievous fault, our fault alone. The blame game stops at the one who refuses to learn. We really have no one to blame but ourselves.
Now, all of this suffering will go away. It is God’s will that our suffering will go away. This is true, this is God’s word, this is God’s will for all. (Isaiah 35; Revelation 7:15–17; 21:4–7) But remember there are some who will refuse to learn this, but also remember there is always hope for all.
Romans 8:20–21 20For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Paul is talking about the curse of the fall, our sinful nature who keeps us as prisoners to it. We on our own cannot escape our sinful nature. Sin is something that we will do without trying and we will even try to sin because it is our nature to do so. Saint Paul realized his captivity and this might be his thorn, his sin; our sin is most certainly a thorn in each of us. I do what I don’t want to do and do not do what I want to do. (Romans 7:14–25)
A thorn that has penetrated our flesh festers and makes us pay attention to it to please it. It’s like an itch that will not go away no matter how hard you scratch it. Not that we can remove this thorn because it has worked itself deep within us. The only way to overcome the effects of our thorn is to pick up our cross, own our sin, and lay it at the foot of our Savior’s cross.
It is called repentance, a daily nutrition for a daily contrition. For if we stay in the bondage of our sin, we decay, we separate from God, and we die. But through daily contrition, that is, repentance we live. You hear Him, the Holy Spirit who leads you to remorse over your sin so that you will pick up your cross and lay it at the feet of our Savior’s cross who is willing and wanting to forgive you all your sin. This is called amazing grace, awesome mercy, and everlasting love.
Romans 8:22–23 22For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
We suffer in this life, we may even groan and become weary of our plight we call life in God’s kingdom on earth. But the first fruit, Jesus Christ who overcame death and was resurrected from death came back to show us His truth and forgiveness to all God’s creation.
We wait for our instant to also be resurrected into eternal life. We wait for our new life as the sons and daughters of our God. We wait for the sure hope to be in the chapel of heaven worshiping Jesus Christ with praises and thanksgiving. We look forward to be the adopted children who will be truly and joyfully cared for forever and ever. All glory to our God and King.
Romans 8:24–25 24For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
When Jesus Christ suffered and died on the cross our hope did not die with Him. However, if our hope had died with Jesus then it too was resurrected with Jesus. Either way we have a sure hope and that is that we too, will be resurrected to new life, in a new body, and on a new earth under the new heavens.
Romans 8:26–27 26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
I thank God that my suffering for my sin is in this life so that I can look forward to my new life with Him in eternity. Amen.
Written by Pastor Curtis A. May